The present invention relates to a knife sharpener that has two pivotable grinding members each of which has a rod pivotably engaged with a shaft, a width between the two grinding members is adjustable by rotating the shaft.
A conventional knife sharpener is shown in FIG. 4 and includes a handle 1 and a head 11 in which a V-shaped groove 12 is defined. The two opposite insides 13 of the groove 12 are made by a material that is harder than the material of knives. A blade of a knife (not shown) is inserted in the groove 12 and two sides of the edge of the blade contact the two insides 13 of the groove 12 so that when moving either the blade of the sharpener 1, the edge of the blade is sharpened. Nevertheless, the width of the groove 12 is fixed so that only the blade that has a thickness suitably received in the groove 12 can be sharpened by the sharpener. A knife that has a blade with too thick or too thin blade cannot be sharpened by the sharpener. In other words, the users should prepare at least two sharpeners so as to sharpen all the knives they have.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a knife sharpener which comprises a handle and an operation portion in which a chamber is defined so as to receive two grinding members therein. An aperture is defined through a top of the operation portion and communicates with the chamber.
Each of the two grinding members has a grinding surface and an angle is defined between the two respective grinding surfaces. A rod extends radially outward from each of the grinding members.
A passage is defined in the operation portion and a shaft is rotatably received in the passage. Two spiral grooves are defined in an outer surface of the shaft and the two respective rods are engaged with the two spiral grooves. A positioning member is engaged with the shaft.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a knife sharpener wherein the width between two grinding members can be adjusted so as to sharpen knives with different thickness.
The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present invention.